Christian millennials seem to live in this multi-layered world of reading the bible on their iPhone and tweeting in church, while singing ancient plainsong and praying prayers spoken by saints of centuries past.

And maybe this makes sense in the context of the hipster trends that have even infected my millennial hair and eyewear. My generation is instagraming photos of our knitting projects and writing our first draft blog posts on typewriters (see blog tagline above).

Yet all of this makes we wonder. Is Liturgy just another version of a millennial hipster fad? Are looms, vinyl record players and vespers things we are going to commit to for a lifetime?

Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know if Liturgy is going to be the Christian fad of the late 2010s like Power Point was the fad of the early 2000s.

At the same time, I think there is something deeper going on when it comes to millennials and liturgy. Particularly, when it comes to evangelical millennials finding liturgy and jumping in with two feet.

Now as a High Churchly Millennial myself, I should confess that I have not actually been a pastor to more than a handful of folks my age. The vast majority of my parishioners have been boomers or older. In fact, one of the concerns of Catholics, Anglicans and Lutherans is how to retain our own “young” people.

So for evangelical millennials to begin wandering into our spaces is surprising, but I have a few theories about this trend. Evangelical churches are doing something with their people that many mainliners have mostly given up on decades ago – evangelicals are creating biblically literate Christians.

I have been teaching confirmation (two years of Lutheran indoctrination for 12 and 13-year-olds) classes for a decade in some form or another. And while I love reading the bible with students and talking about issues of faith, it is clear that we are not introducing our children to the bible beyond once a week classes with the pastor. When I ask kids if they know the basic details of many of biblical stories, including the life and ministry of Jesus they rarely come up with any.

What’s worse is that this biblical illiteracy is not limited to teenagers… it is rampant among mainliners. Evangelicals, on the other hand, have much more established cultures of bible reading. Evangelicals are encouraged to read the bible daily and to engage in group bible study more rigorously than many mainliners.

And this is where the experience of Liturgy comes in.

Liturgy is scripturally rich. The prayers and music texts are full of biblical images… images that come and go fast. A Eucharistic prayer might reference creation, Abraham and Sarah, Eljiah being fed at the river, David and Goliath, Ezekiel and the dry bones and then Jesus all in a few lines. If you can’t move quickly between stories and images, it can begin to sound like jargon and non-sense. I suspect a lot of mainline folks, especially bored teenagers, feel completely lost during a lot of liturgy.

As our need to be connected to and to understand what is happening around us increases through teenage years and into adulthood, biblically rich liturgy can become an experience of alienation. People don’t know what is going on or why the presider is yammering on about all these people with old sounding names. This is when the old trope that “Liturgy is boring” starts to get thrown around. Yet, most teachers know (and pastors should too) that kids who claim school is boring, often do so because they are not comprehending basic concepts and are struggling to keep up with what is going on. Many mainliners are in this boat.

Now imagine instead, you are a biblically literate teenager or young adult. You know your bible. You have done sword drills, and trivia. You have memorized verses and verses of the bible. And yet the worship you attend is 15 praises songs, which may or may not have a few psalm verses as lyrics, 3 extemporaneous prayers, and is concluded by some dude in a graphic t-shirt lecturing for 45 minutes on the ten principles of prayer found in Malachi chapter three.

I can see why, when biblically literate evangelicals end up in a Lutheran or Anglican worship service, they find a whole new playground of biblical worship. All of a sudden the richness of the biblical narratives come alive. Biblical images are used abundantly. Bible stories are quoted frequently. Scripture is read aloud regularly. The biblical knowledge of personal devotion and youth group becomes the new language of prayer and song, of ritual and community. You are thrown into the divine drama and you are with a community who is practicing and acting it out together.

“By things we have done, and things we have failed to do” weighs heavy on our hearts as we confess these words in community, and then receive the gift of absolution and forgiveness.

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” takes on new meaning when the acolyte processes the big bible down into the midst of the people in order to hear the gospel read.

“Peace be with you” is embodied when we say it as we embrace fellow Christians around us.

“This is my body, given for you” is felt when a hunk of bread is torn from a loaf and placed in our open hands and we feel flesh the of the one giving us this bread meeting our flesh, somehow bringing together earthly bread and divine body.

Liturgy has the ability to awaken the richness of the core narratives of faith in ways I have never experienced elsewhere. I can’t imagine another means of embodying the bible – embodying the Word of God – so deeply as we do in the liturgy.

Now, I am not saying that mainline millennials are not able to appreciate liturgy. Nor am I saying that evangelical millennials are about to become liturgy loving Catholics, Anglicans or Lutherans.

But rather I am trying to make some connections that point to bigger issues among Christians in North America and the West in general. The fact is many evangelicals seem to be good at keeping early church’s serious commitment to catechesis, yet have dropped many of liturgical commitments. While many mainliners have maintained the liturgical commitment of our forbearers, we have dropped much of the catechetical commitment to introduce our young and our new members to the bible and to the richness of the biblical narrative. The two dynamics play into each other in ways that none of us anticipated.

So back to my first question: Is liturgy just the latest hipster fad among millennial christians? I cannot really say. I wish and hope it isn’t. But I also know that vestments and their fabrics (all the funny robes that priests and pastors wear) excite me in the same way others of my generational cohort might be excited by bee-keeping or printing presses or growing organic gardens or listening to vinyl.

Yet, I would posit that there is something deep and more profound in liturgy, even with all its ancient adornments and traditions. Liturgy is rooted in the rich and beautiful biblical narratives that help us to make sense of the world – or perhaps show us how God is making sense of us.

Even if liturgy and vestments and ancient ritual appeals to my millennial and hipster sensibilities, I know it is a life long interest, a life long calling if you will, to continually encounter God in ways that Christians have been encountering God for centuries.

21 thoughts on “Confessions of a High Church Millennial – Is Liturgy a Fad?”

As a generation X spirit filled Pentecostal I can honestly say I wish we had found the Reformed church (RCA) a long time ago and am glad we are raising our son in this denomination. The greater understanding and reverence he has for Jesus and love for God at 12 is something I never understood at his age. He doesn’t take weekly communion just because the bread dipped in the juice is tasty. He knew why he chose to be baptized and they encouraged my husband to assist in baptizing him as he would be the one raising him with me in Jesus. None of this I experienced in the evangelical church I loved.
I also hope this isn’t a fad and I hope that more Millennials could get plugged in to this middle ground denom and in closer ties to the roots of our faith. It’s a beautiful thing to be a part of.

I can’t speak for everyone, although I am a millennial. I had been away from church for quite a while, but have recently returned to Catholic church, my original faith, and also started checking out some of the trendier, more modern Christian churches. While I love the tech and the praise songs and the way pastors in these new churches take on actual, current issues, there’s something about the traditional looking church, the organ, the opera singer, the ritual, the robes, that I can’t seem to shake. I have to go to a Catholic church every once in a while. Funny, these are the same traditions that I once found outdated. I’m still kind of figuring out where I belong in all of this, so I can’t really say. I’ve always found it hard to fully belong anywhere. Time will tell, and I guess I can post an update later. As for The Bible- yes, I am much more interested in that these days. Don’t think it was really stressed too much in my upbringing. Not sure why. It’s THE book, no? I’ve been reading it much more closely.

I can’t quite call myself a millennial, I’m somehow right in between millennial and gen x, but I do know how it is I came to join an ELCA church. Politics played a part. I find the liturgy simultaneously soul soothing and heart rending and mentally fascinating. I do sometimes miss the songs and impromptu prayers of my evangelical and fundamentalist roots. And the young families and willingness to embrace technology. I did get some great things from my upbringing in a Southern Baptist Church, more of an emphasis on individual relationship and prayer, the idea that it’s OK to write in and underline a Bible. But there was also significant spiritual damage. The biggest factor in my making the switch was my Lutheran friend agreeing to meet me in the parking lot and take my arm to get me through the door. He’d been sending me links to Nadia Bolz-Weber’s sermons for a year before I was able to consider the idea that there might be room for me in any church. It had been nearly 20 years since I’d darkened a church door for any reason other than a funeral. I needed, and wanted, to go back but had to be sure I was going somewhere women weren’t relegated to teaching elementary ages Sunday school and nothing else but silence and submission. Finding a church that doesn’t shunt half the talents off to the kitchen to bake another casserole was critical for me. I like cooking but it is a huge waste of 95% of me. No, I’m most certainly not a hipster and it’s not just a fad for me. I actual got online and read all those position papers and social statements before ever attending. Actually, the liturgy was very strange and foreign to me before it became comforting and soothing. It took me six months to learn a new version of the Lord’s Prayer and sometimes I still find myself reverting. But I’m not going anywhere now. It might be a church full of old people and I sure would love to see more young families but I’m hooked.

I think you bring up a really good point in this post. Evangelical churches do encourage an in-depth understanding of and closeness to the Bible. Traditional liturgical churches use the Bible directly in worship services. It seems like what we really want is a nice blend of both. Like fries with a burrito bowl, to go back to your opening metaphor.

Also, thank you for posting the Barna Group research link. I’m doing some research on religion of my own, and that was right on topic. I am excited to check it out a little more in-depth!

Jesus said of the Eucharist, Do this in rememberance of me. Yet the word is Anemnesis; it is richer than a memorial, but is a remembering that causes the rememberer to participate in the event being remembered.

Higher liturgy also respects the varied personality types of the people of God, by having times for introspection/contemplation/surrender (introverts), time for stillness/movement, and of course, time for outward active praise (extroverted/physical/excitement).

If done well, its richer and deeper than the endless praise songs which proved a very narrow mode of worship.

And I thought I’d left my evangelical church of eight years because I was a little burnt out and needed to hear God’s voice from a different perspective, hmmmmmm…. you’ve given me food for thought (even though I’m not a millennial).

And I thought I simply left my evangelical church of eight years because I might have been a little burned out and needed to hear God’s voice from a different perspective…. hmmmmmm you’ve given me food for thought (even if I’m not a millennial).

What a wonderful testimony. Being an ‘unashamed’ Anglo catholic who is 67, very often some in the church (not all but some) of my generation who lived through and ‘survived’ the 60’s as did I, some look at me as if I am from ‘Mars’ or some quaint Victorian relic of a bygone era. And yet my home parish in Chicago is alive, well, thriving, has beautiful liturgy, solid Gospel-centered preaching and terrific clergy, uplifting music both English and Latin; the growing diverse/multi-ethnic/multi-racial inclusive parish welcomes people warmly. I think they have a strong community centered around a traditional and very high church liturgy for which they make no apology, thanks be to God.

I think you have hit the nail on the head. I am the mom of 5 three of whom are post high school. Two of them have chosen churches liturgy. They were raised in an evangelical church where yes, the church and we as a family read our Bibles together and went to Bible studies. I think that is it true that the liturgy has rich meaning when you know the Biblical basis of it. I have visited with my daughter in her Anglican church and I so appreciate it. She enjoys the reverence and respect for God. My husband and I were there were an Anglican church in our town for us to attend.

Anyway there are several college students in her Anglican church and my son has found the same at his Presbyterian church. It is full of young people who appreciate the authencity of the worship and the rich background of the prayers and readings